Certain types of film really catch the BBC's imagination. They are quite rare though. There's maybe only one or two of them a year. But once the BBC has latched on to one of these films they never seem to shut up about it. Are we seeing the first such film of 2018 in Black Panther?
Mark Mardell's The World This Weekend had a big feature on it and Mark himself has called it "a turning point". Someone at Biased-BBC called it "a not to be criticised movie " on the strength of a enthusiastic BBC News website article about it written by a non-BBC graphic illustrator headlined Black Panther: 'Why black people like me are refusing to be sub-plots', and Mark Mardell's guests - Ekow Eshun and Gaylene Gould - were in full agreement with Mark about its significance and its magnificence. It was not criticised.
And that BBC News website article by Jacob Joyce is far from being the only BBC News website piece about the film. You can also read pieces headlined: Why Marvel's Black Panther is no ordinary superhero movie; Black Panther: Fans share what the film means to them; Black Panther reaction is in... and it's good news; Kendrick Lamar unveils Black Panther soundtrack; The Black Panther Challenge has hit the UK; and Black Panther premiere: Stars and fans wear African attire; and you can also watch a video report headlined Black Panther: Why this film is a 'moment'.
Today has covered it too. As has Newsnight. And Victoria Derbyshire. And Thursday's News at One and News at Six on BBC One. And The One Show.
Where will the next plug for it appear on the BBC? Will anyone ever say a bad word about it?
Well, someone already has - allegedly! Jeremy Vine, who presented The One Show and interviewed the film's stars, described the film (during the interview and to their faces) as "overwhelmingly black". The hounds of Twitter Hell unleashed themselves upon his poor hapless head, some of them even using the r-word about him. I hope he's going to be OK.
Oddly, it does have a predominantly black cast - at least according to Wikipedia. So why is what he said considered "insensitive"? Is it because of the word 'overwhelmingly'? Do the Twitter numpties - and the 'journalists' who reported their 'outrage' - think that 'overwhelmingly' was meant as implying 'too many' rather than 'predominantly' - which is obviously the sense of the word that Jeremy meant, especially as even the reports about his 'gaffe' say he was actually trying to be "trying to praise" the film at the time?
If he's not OK, here's a terrible joke from his brother to cheer him up (possibly):
This bloke said to me, he said who is your favourite African Star Wars character? I said Nairobi Wan Kenobi.
Worse than their liking for the film Black Panther is their penchant for the lunatic Black Panthers of the late 60s - a collection of violent women-hating racist drugged up fantasists.
ReplyDeleteThe utter bollux spouted around this comic is fantastic entertainment.
ReplyDeleteTwitter served up a male version of Camilla Batty to claim the sets were designed to show how things would have looked had not the scourge of colonialism been imposed.
I enquired if it was shot on location just outside Calais to save costs.
I like Marval films and was looking forward to this, only to have it ruined by what can only be described as virtue signalling.
ReplyDeleteThat said it amuses me because these people seem too thick to realise that the film studios are using them for free publicity, I bet they start the virtuous ball rolling with the initial press releases.
Did anyone watch Wonder Woman? It was ok as far as superhero films go but not groundbreaking. What I couldn’t understand was why in this PC world it was ok for the Male lead to not say much, get topless and be lusted after? Surely they are missing the point?